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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Prime_Evil" data-source="post: 7691548" data-attributes="member: 11984">Looking back at it with the benefit of hindsight, market forces eventually sorted out the d20 glut. Most of those companies that established a track record for producing good d20 material are still going strong, although some of them moved into different markets when 4e came out (e.g. Green Ronin, Fantasy Flight, Malhavoc Press, etc). A few of them went dormant for a while during the 4e period only to re-emerge in a different form (e.g. Necromancer Games and Frog God Games). And some of the current designers at WoTC started out doing freelance work for these publishers. However, those companies that produced sub-standard material or pumped out a mountain of crap are mostly gone - killed by the crash that occurred when 3.5 was released. In retrospect, the OGL was responsible for the emergence of both a new generation of designers and a number of companies that kept the hobby alive during the post-2008 downturn when RPG sales tanked across the board. The most obvious beneficiary was Paizo, who used material from the SRD3 / d20 SRD to create their own 3.5E variant (Pathfinder). But this only occurred because WoTC badly mishandled the transition to 4e for third-party publishers (3PP), causing most of them to abandon the restrictive 4e System Trademark Licence (STL) in favour of the plucky upstart. With the publication of an official 5e SRD, it is very unlikely that history will repeat itself unless WoTC / HASBRO do something spectacularly stupid (not impossible, but unlikely). And in the meantime, the SRD3 / d20 SRD enabled the explosion of creativity associated with the Old School Rennaissance (OSR) movement - which in turn influenced the development of 5E. I think we'll continue to see new D&D variants into the future, but they will be viewed as interesting D&D derivatives rather than direct competitors for market share. I also think we will see a lot of crap published both on DriveThruRPG / RPGNow and the new Dungeon Master's Guild, but as before those companies who produce good material consistently will thrive while those who churn out crap will die and be forgotten. What is going to be important moving forward is how well WoTC nurture the brand and rebuild third-party support for their products. If they are smart, they will look at what Paizo has done to encourge a community to develop around Pathfinder and learn some lessons from it. Releasing periodic SRD updates and having a page on the WoTC website to showcase the best third-party products would be a good start. Remember that third-party support is vital to drive ongoing sales of the core rulebooks.</blockquote>

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